“Stone Cold” Steve Austin had Hulk Hogan as a guest on The Steve Austin Show this week to discuss a wide variety of topics from their WWE Hall of Fame careers. During the conversation Austin discussed the brief period of time where both men were working for the WWE after WCW had folded and the New World Order had been brought into Vince McMahon’s company.
Videos by ComicBook.com
While many fans assumed that Hollywood Hogan, the top heel in WCW, would cross paths with “The Texas Rattlesnake” at some point, it never came to pass. Hogan faced The Rock at WrestleMania X8, while Austin (recently done with his heel run) took on the NWO’s Scott Hall at the same show. Austin admitted one of his biggest career regrets was not feuding with Hogan instead.
“I was in such a different headspace when that window of opportunity presented itself,” Austin said (h/t Fightful for transcription). “Sometimes I kick myself in the ass over it. I was so frazzled towards the end and was just in a bad space. It never happened. And it should have happened. I think if we could have just got in a room, you and I, and just talked. [When you came to WCW], I remember, I’m up-and-coming and here comes the biggest attraction in the history of the business to WCW and I’m thinking, ‘Great, here comes the top attraction and now I’m another notch down the ladder.’
“I always had this grudge against you because you were the guy,” he continued. “How am I going to overtake [you] when I can’t even get past midcard status? It was a competitive grudge. [When you came back to WWE], if we had ever got into a room, we probably could have done business together. That’s one of the biggest regrets off my career outside of not showing up against Brock [Lesnar]. I would have loved to work a program with you.”
The only match where Austin and Hogan were actually on opposite sides came on the March 11, 2002 episode of Monday Night Raw, where Austin and Rock teamed up to take on Hogan, Hall and Kevin Nash in a handicap tag match.
Hogan gave his side of the story from those days in 2002.
“When I got that reaction with The Rock, my sights were set on you,” Hogan said. “I thought it was gonna be you first. But Vince asked me to work with Rock. But I was trying to work with you. I understand you had physical stuff and maybe mental, so I get it. I’ve been there and done stuff, not knowing I did it, and got heat on me because I was screwed up in the head personally.”
